The Breker Trekker » Electronic Engineering Timeshttp://www10.edacafe.com/blogs/thebrekertrekker
All the News from The SoC Verification CompanyFri, 09 Dec 2016 02:35:42 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Sage Advice for Startupshttp://www10.edacafe.com/blogs/thebrekertrekker/2015/10/16/sage-advice-for-startups/
http://www10.edacafe.com/blogs/thebrekertrekker/2015/10/16/sage-advice-for-startups/#commentsSat, 17 Oct 2015 00:23:40 +0000http://www10.edacafe.com/blogs/thebrekertrekker/?p=1471We’re coming up to the two-and-a-half-year anniversary for The Breker Trekker, with 124 published posts. Initially I promised a post every other week, but after looking at the viewing patterns I quickly realized that I had to publish every week to establish a consistent audience. There’s always something to talk about in this fast-paced world, whether something new at Breker, standards activity, observations about the EDA industry, or analysis of the customers who drive our business.

Today I’d to acknowledge a second Breker blog that has actually been around longer than this one. Just over three years ago, Breker board of directors member Michel Courtoy started a series of posts in Electronic Engineering Times to offer advice to startups. He has published 28 such posts, and has covered an amazing amount of territory. I suppose that I should have done some “cross-promotion” earlier, but at this point I would like to highlight some of Michel’s sage advice.

First of all, let’s establish Michel’s credentials for offering advice. He started his career at Intel in design engineering and software engineering, and then managed product marketing for layout verification software at Cadence Design Systems. He led two startups into successful acquisitions, as vice president of marketing for Silicon Perspective and as CEO at Certess. Today, he serves on the board of directors of multiple start-up companies, including Breker.

When Breker relocated our headquarters from Austin to Silicon Valley four years ago, the main reason was to have better access to experienced entrepreneurs who could help guide the company to success. Michel is just the sort of person our founders had in mind, and he has been generous with his time and talent. Michel likes to say that “it takes a village to make an entrepreneurial CEO” and has addressed the value of startup advisors in severalofhisposts.

Of course, the best board of directors and set of advisors can’t compensate for the wrong employees. Michel has also offered advice on how to hire the right team, with the warning that “the first few hires are the most important because there’s absolutely no margin for error.” As for motivating the team and establishing the company culture, Michel quotes the late EDA guru Phil Kaufman on the first step of eliminating sources of unhappiness or dissatisfaction by taking care of “corporate hygiene.”

Michel does not shy away from discussing what is often the toughest job for any CEO or manager: cutting employees whose behavior or performance is detriment to the company. He really hits the nail on the head when he says “not firing someone who is not a good fit or not competent at the job is unfair to the rest of the team.” I’ve had exactly that same thought several times in my own management career when I saw no choice except to terminate a member of my team for the good of the organization as a whole.

Naturally, I love it when Michel says “ignore marketing at your peril.” My nearly four years at Breker began when Michel advised the company that it was time to create a full-time marketing role. He has also offered excellent advice on creating and growing the sales channel. He makes the crucial point that “founders must be active participants in the sales activities” by driving customer engagements in the early stages and then hiring the right team to take over day-to-day sales as the company grows.

I encourage you to follow the links in this post and check out all the advice offered by Michel in his EE Times series. He speaks directly to startup founders and CEOs in most cases, but his words of wisdom often apply to managers in technology companies of any size. If there’s a topic that you’d like us to tackle in a future post, please leave a comment. Thanks to Michel for all his support of Breker, and thanks as always to you for taking the time from your busy day to read this post.

Tom A.

The truth is out there … sometimes it’s in a blog.

]]>http://www10.edacafe.com/blogs/thebrekertrekker/2015/10/16/sage-advice-for-startups/feed/0Congratulations to Richard Goering for a Great Careerhttp://www10.edacafe.com/blogs/thebrekertrekker/2015/07/23/congratulations-to-richard-goering-for-a-great-career/
http://www10.edacafe.com/blogs/thebrekertrekker/2015/07/23/congratulations-to-richard-goering-for-a-great-career/#commentsThu, 23 Jul 2015 23:11:14 +0000http://www10.edacafe.com/blogs/thebrekertrekker/?p=1351The recent death of EDA analyst Gary Smith overshadowed another major transition in our industry: the retirement of longtime EDA journalist Richard Goering at the end of June. Both of these men contributed an extraordinary amount to EDA, and today I’d like to say a bit about Richard and his accomplishments. He is best remembered as the CAD/CAE/EDA editor for Electronic Engineering Times, for many years the newspaper of record for electronics.

It would be hard for today’s young engineers to imagine how influential EE Times was at its peak. It stood out on everyone’s desk with its distinctive tabloid format. Most buyers turned to its pages first. All vendors wanted to achieve editorial coverage for their companies and products, in addition to advertising there. The EE Times journalists and editors were some of the best and brightest. Landing an interview with one of them was a goal for every PR campaign. When it came to EDA, Richard Goering was the man.

I can tell you the exact date when I was first quoted in an article by Richard: August 22, 1994. I had appeared on a panel at an event called the TechWin EDA Forum that was covered by EE Times. Richard picked out my pithiest comment and quoted me accurately. Perhaps it sounds silly today, but I was genuinely excited to be considered worthy of coverage by the leading electronics newspaper. Of course there were also excellent writers in other publications (EDN, Electronic Design, Computer Design, ASIC & EDA, etc.) but Richard was king of the hill.

I met Richard a few times during this period, but when I moved into the IP/EDA market myself and started pitching press releases I talked with him more frequently. I was frankly a little nervous on my first few interviews with him. He could be intimidating, firing off questions rapidly as he typed loudly and furiously in the background. Richard didn’t write about a press release just because it existed. It was up to us to convince him that we had something new or different in the market and to explain clearly why and how.

He was a master at cutting through corporate hype and marketing fluff to get to the meat of a story. But even his expertise and great reputation could not withstand the online media avalanche that reduced readership, decimated advertising budgets, and led to the demise or downsizing of many publications. EE Times all but shut down their EDA coverage in 2007. Richard moved on to establish a pioneering independent Web site where he continued to provide the industry the benefits of his insight.

Richard’s final job was part of the online team at Cadence, where I welcomed him as a fellow blogger in early 2009. He was instrumental in helping the company formulate its EDA360 manifesto and he achieved the very delicate balance of working for a vendor while still being seen as an open-minded industry expert by the vast majority of his readers. For many of us, his Industry Insights blog was as essential as his EE Times articles had been back in the day.

In my view, Richard had a great career that brought much value to our industry. Some of his colleagues continue to cover EDA well, but it won’t be quite the same without him. Given all the changes that have occurred for magazines and newspapers, plus the multiplicity of online sources, we will probably never again see so much influence from a single individual. We thank Richard for all his past work and wish him well in whatever new adventures his retirement brings. Bravo!